Final Skills Audit

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name: James Henderson                    Tutor group: 1.17               Date: 22 April 2014

Photographic Skills

Which of the following photographic features/equipment have you used on a camera before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Manual Focus features	Y		Used to develop manual camera control skills in changing depth of field
Shutter Speed	Y		Used to capture motion outside and used for drawing with light
Aperture control	Y		Used to develop manual camera control skills in changing depth of field
ISO Control	Y		Used to develop manual camera control skills in changing depth of field
A tripod	Y		No changes in this area since the initial skills audit
External flash	Y		Used in the studio photoshoot to control lighting
Self timer facility	Y		No changes in this area since the initial skills audit
Light meter	Y		Used in the studio photoshoot to measure and alter light brightness
Composition grids	Y		No changes in this area since the initial skills audit

Photoshop Skills

Which of the following features of Photoshop have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Text control	Y		Used in the production of my magazine front cover
Filters	Y		Used when experimenting with new features
Brushes	Y		Used in the production of my Christmas CD album cover
Layers	Y		Used in the production of my magazine front cover
Opacity control	Y		Used in the production of my magazine front cover
Shape creation	Y		Used in the production of my magazine front cover
Brightness and contrast control	Y		No changes in this area since the initial skills audit
Gradients		N
Load selection features		N
Feathering		N
Colour curves adjustment	Y		This was used when I was cross processing
Resolution setting control	Y		Used in the production of my magazine front cover
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	Y		Used in the production of my magazine front cover to lighten the vest top that my model was wearing.
Cropping tool	Y		Used in the production of my magazine front cover
Clone tool	Y		Used in the production of my Christmas CD album cover
Retouch tool		N

In Design Skills

Which of the following features of In Design have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Margin and column guide creation	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article
Inserting an image ID	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article (photo lead page)
Resizing images in ID	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article (photo lead page)
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article (sub-header sticker text)
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article
Text flow creation	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article (first three columns)
Using transparent imagery in ID	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article (bus on photo-lead sub-header sticker)
Shape/line creation In design	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article (breakout box and sticker sub-header)
Exporting to PDF from In-design	Y		Used in the exporting process of my magazine article
Text Wrap	Y		Used in the production of my magazine article (text wrap around the quote insert)
Other Skills

Number of new skills achieved: 28

Finished Magazine

My front now looks like this. I have created this to look similar to other music magazines by looking at the key features such as having a top 100 feature where the number is much larger than other text on the page. My main sell line is for my article, I have added another yellow bar beneath this so that I could fit a small piece of information to it. I have used a pattern of colours including the magazine name/header in black then it follows red to black to red etc however I have broken the pattern when I want to draw attention to a particular feature, in these cases I have used yellow. I have used red for mostly question sells (excluding the also inside) and I have used black for factual sells and my header. I have also added another picture in the bottom corner which is acting as a "free poster" to draw more attention to my magazine.

My photo lead page has not been changed.

My article has been finalised with the addition of my quote insert, this quote is from the interview with the silence. I have also added a texture to the page, this is because the plain white made it look unfinished however by adding a blue and white faint background the article looks much higher quality although the article hasn't actually changed.

On this page, nothing has changed other than the same background added as what is on the last page.

magazine progress 3

Here we can see the progress that i have made with my magazine front cover and article. 

On the front cover you can see that it has changed since my last blog entry. The image is the same however I have used photoshop to transform the image to show more of a full body shot. I have centralised it more than what it was, this has been done so that when I put my sell lines onto the front cover, I will be able to have them down both sides of the page much like a real magazine. I have also taken out the splat-like sticker with the heavy black outline and I have replaced it with a red banner that I have used the opacity tool on so that it is not thick and so that my image beneath is still visible. My title "unison" has also been made slightly smaller as I want the image and the sell lines to appeal more than a branded logo. The sub-title of "Your Times ... Your Life" is now acting as an underline for the title however in itself is still serving its purpose of being a sub-title. The colour schemes are the same as they have been previously.

My photo-lead page has not changed other than the addition of my break out box. 

The main article has now been put into place. the interview material has been put as one column, this is because this allows me to clearly outline each question/answer without making it very small and compact. this also allows my readers to quickly skim through the different questions to find the ones that they are most interested in.

Each question has a slightly bigger font and is underlined and it is bold. This is done to emphasise the new questions. Each of the respondents names is also underlined however the text size and boldness is the same as the rest of the article.

My interview material

The above video is of the interview that i conducted with The Silence (also my models), from this interview i will be able to take selected parts of this to be able to include into my article.

Magazine progress 2

My Magazine is now further developed.

Above is my first version (unfinished) of my front cover, i have created this in photoshop. i have had to change this from how i wanted it to look due to space available in the studio, however this front cover is a very typical cover and is much more vibrant. I am unsure about the heavy outlines and of the position of my model, so i think this may need to change.

 Here (above) we have my photo lead, i have reduced the rotation of my sub-header, i have taken away the black behind the header however i have not changed the font as I have decided it is of for this page.

 On this page (above) we can see that i have kept the main structure of the columns however i have moved the breakout box onto the next page (below) and i have positioned more pictures differently than i was going to so that it brings the page alive and so that there is more variety rather than a boarder.

finally on this page (above) we can see that i have placed two images on the page edge and positioned the breakout box at the end of the article. as well as this, i have only used one column, this is because there would not be enough room for two and also by the time the reader reaches this page, the will hopefully be already involved with the article enough not to notice the slight increase in writing appearance.